Dutch Rightists Score in Elections

Posted on Jun 5, 2009

Exit polls show the notoriously anti-immigrant Dutch politician Geert Wilders gaining 15 percent of the vote and second place in elections for the European Parliament in the Netherlands—even as he faces prosecution on charges of inciting hatred in his speeches.

The Guardian:

The Dutch anti-immigrant maverick, Geert Wilders, scored his biggest victory yesterday, seizing 15% and second place in European elections for the Netherlands, according to exit polls last night.

The bleached blond populist, barred from Britain and facing prosecution at home for hate speech, led his Freedom party to win four of the Netherlands’ 25 seats in the European parliament at the first attempt, pushing the Labour party of the coalition government’s finance minister, Wouter Bos, into third place.

Wilders wants the European parliament abolished, Bulgaria and Romania kicked out of the EU, the mass deportation of immigrants from the Netherlands, and a minimum say for Brussels over Dutch policy. The virulence of his anti-Islam and anti-immigrant activities saw him barred from entering Britain earlier this year, while the Dutch authorities are prosecuting him for inciting hatred.